Balderton Raises $305 Million for Early-Stage Investments

Venture-capital firm Balderton Capital has opened a $305 million start-up fund, hoping to spread out lots of small investments and have a bigger chance of hitting it big.

The company, one of the top venture funds in Europe, will have a total of $2.2 billion in funds managed, largely in European tech start-ups. But for this fund, Balderton will focus even less on getting involved with companies that are already established and more on those just getting their products off the ground.

“We really have refined our strategy,” said Bernard Liautaud, a general partner at Balderton. “The environment [in Europe] is a lot more mature than it was maybe five years ago.”

The investment reflects a growing interest in tech startups in Europe, where the tech scenes in London and Berlin have been flourishing.

Balderton hopes to invest in companies and see a 20- to 40-fold return on its investment, Mr. Liautaud said. That also means betting on companies that inevitably won’t succeed.

“The venture capital business is a hits and misses business, but we believe there are more and more opportunities to find hits in Europe,” he said.

Previously, the firm invested in successful companies like NaturalMotion, a gaming company that was bought by Zynga Inc. for more than $525 million in a deal announced in January.

Balderton launched in 2000 as part of Silicon-Valley firm Benchmark Capital. It rebranded and became independent in 2007.